Synonyms

Historical Background

Isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase (Icmt) is the only known prenylcysteine protein-dependent methyltransferase and plays a critical role in the posttranslational modification of prenylated proteins (Bergo et al. 2000). The Icmt ortholog from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, STE14p, was the first prenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase to be cloned and sequenced, and it is considered the founding member of this eukaryote protein methyltransferase family (Anderson et al. 2005). STE14p was originally recognized in a screen of mutant yeast, deficient of STE14, which rendered the yeast sterile due to their failure to methylate the mating pheromone a-factor, a protein crucial for fertility. STE14p is a 26 kDa integral membrane protein with multiple transmembrane (TM)-spanning domains and is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (Romano and Michaelis 2001). Human Icmt cDNA possess notable homology...